Lucy
by Riverhaze
Summary: Lucy is a gutter punk living on the streets of Gotham after an estrangement from her mother, Harleen Quinzel. After being attacked, she is sent on a wild goose chase and quickly discovers she is being hunted. But by who? And more importantly, why? More questions than answers will arise as she travels deeper into the rabbit hole of secrets and lies kept from her. (Edits Coming Soon)
1. One

Full sum: Based on elements of the comics and movie. Rated M for violence, language, and visuals. Lucy is a gutter punk living on the streets of Gotham after an estrangement from her mother, Harleen Quinzel. After being attacked, she is sent on a wild goose chase and quickly discovers she is being hunted. But by who? And more importantly, why? More questions than answers will arise as she travels deeper into the rabbit hole of secrets and lies kept from her.

I meant to post this a while ago, i wrote this after seeing Suicide Squad (I hated it but loved the Joker and Harley) but decided to write it until it was done before posting it. Chapters will be posted every Monday. Happy New Years, enjoy.

* * *

There were three of them now. Three large goonish looking guys standing at the other end of the street staring at me.

I blew a bubble through my teeth and gnashed on the stale piece of bubblegum in my mouth, trying to remain natural as the smashed up meter flooded out coins. This wasn't gang territory or controlled by some whacked out crime boss, we were literally down the street from the heart of downtown Gotham and its teeming nightlife. I tended to stay around here because it's generally safer from people like the guys slowly walking towards me.

I turned away from them and slung my bag around my shoulders, keeping the crowbar tightly grasped in my fist. This wouldn't be the first time I had to outrun a group of creepy men.

They must not have counted on me running, because I was already around the corner by the time they started giving chase. A few stumbling drunks wandering these back alley streets stopped to stare, but didn't do much as I came flying by, bag of stolen change clattering loudly the entire time.

My head start ended up being a godsend, because those fuckers could run _fast._ They were already several yards behind me when I turned sharply into the alley on my right. I pinned myself to the wall and readied my swinging arm, I was gonna need it.

The first guy's nose gave a loud, satisfying crunch when my crowbar made contact with his cranium. I threw him into the second while the third scrambled around them. In the confusion, I swung down hard vertically and lodged the curved end of the crowbar into the back of his skull, he dropped to the ground immediately, and I swung a second time just in case.

The other two slammed me against the wall, the one without blood gushing down his chin and neck began to kick me in my sides. I cried out in between each blow, hoping someone somewhere would hear me and do something. But I've lived here long enough to know, no one usually does, not even the freaks in tights.

"How's he look?" The goon standing over me took a step back as I recoiled on the ground, clutching my sides that were screaming in pain.

"He's dead." The other one responded gruffly, clutching his gushing nose.

"If she wasn't important, I'd kick her head in." The first one cursed loudly. I was curled up into a ball now and these mother fuckers had me seeing red. While neither one were looking, I reached into my boot and pulled out the switchblade I kept hidden in there.

"C'mere, you bitch." The man nearly growled at me and reached for my hair. The blade of the knife flashed through the darkness as I dug it into his neck. He gave out a gurgled cry and fell forward, right on top of me and spraying the front of my shirt in thick globs of blood. At this point, the last man standing decided to just eff it and he took off running from where they came, clutching his broken nose the entire time.

Letting out a feral roar of my own, I shoved the heavy man off of me and sprung to my feet. Snatching up my crowbar and wheezing through the pain at my sides, I went running after the fleeing man at top speed. I was _pissed_ , this was my favorite shirt and now it was ruined! And to top it all off, this creep thought he could just _run away_?

"Get back here, fucker!" I shouted after his running frame, barely paying attention to where I was going. The man gave a slight jump at the sound of my voice and quickened his run into an all out sprint. As I started to gain on him, the pain in my sides became overwhelming and I had to stop and lean against the wall of a building to catch my breath. Shit, I'd probably have to go to the clinic and make sure nothing was fractured or bleeding. Just great.

I watched the man disappear down the street as I gritted my teeth and suppressed the urge to let out a frustrated scream. Whenever I got angry, I tended to fly to the most extreme end of my emotions without reason, but right now, I had a pretty damn good one.

As I made my way to my friends apartment that I was crashing at, I tried to write off the encounter as an act of random violence. Happened all the time. But their conversation had been cryptic, I was 'important' to them, to whatever twisted idea they had in mind. I tried not to linger on that very long. Usually stories like those did not end too well.


	2. Two

By the time I made it to my friend's apartment, the sun was beginning to rise. My sides no longer hurt beyond tolerance, but had settled to a dull, annoying ache. The old grey haired, shriveled up woman on the eighth floor watched me wheeze my way up the entire time between long drags from her cigarette. She at least gave me one when I walked by, and I sucked gratefully on the nicotine to ignore the lingering pain.

I knocked several times on the door to Jenna's apartment, already loud music could be heard blaring within.

"Lucy! There you are! How are you this fine morning?" Jenna opened the door and the disjointed music consisting mostly of noise hit me full force in the face.

"Great. Got assaulted by some creeps. But I made thirty seven dollars in quarters." I slung my bag around and jingled the heavy change. It was now that Jenna noticed the blood on my shirt and her eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

"What happened? Are you okay?" She nearly shrieked and drug me inside her apartment.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Two of them won't be. Maybe it will be on the news." I grinned from ear to ear as Jenna steered me into the kitchen. She prepared a bowl of stale cereal for me as I filled her in on the details.

"Hold on, DON! Turn down your _FUCKING_ music!" Jenna screamed at the top of her lungs as I shoveled a large spoonful of oats in my mouth.

"What?" A muffled voice responded several moments later.

"Oh my GAWD-" Jenna stormed off angrily, there was a loud yelping noise and then the ear splattering music was turned down. Don came trailing in after her, eyes already glazed over with a stupid look on his face.

"Hey Lucy, what's up." He gave a vacant chuckle and fell down into the seat next to me.

"Anyway, continue with your story, Lucy." Jenna rolled her eyes and leaned against the counter.

"Alright, well, I was down off third street, it was just a few hours ago. I was breaking open the meters and like, three guys appeared out of nowhere and ran at me. I ran from them, then they cornered me in an alley." I cleared my throat and swirled the food in the milk.

"Didya stab em in throat?" Don laughed to himself and spun around in his seat.

"Yeah. One of them." I shrugged. Both of them reacted quite differently, Don gave me a high five while Jenna freaked out and went on a small rant of her own.

"What if you get charged with murder? Did anyone else see it?" She gasped deeply and clutched on to the counter as if someone was going to drag her away.

"Well, why do ya think I left? And I don't think so, someone might have seen me chasing the third guy who got away but I'm not really worried about it." I shrugged again, wishing I had just kept the whole ordeal to myself.

"You are so hardcore now. No one's gonna mess with you ever again." Don whistled between his teeth.

"I wonder why they attacked you. Probably some freaks thinking they can just assault any girl they want. Now that I think about it, it's a good thing you put em out of commission." Jenna nodded to herself.

"Only two of the three. One of them is still out there." I pointed out, gulping down the rest of the milk in the bowl.

"Yeah, but think about the odds of that guy ever finding you again. It's a big city, and random violence happens all the time." Don had a weird moment of clarity through the drugs clouding his brain.

"Ugh, all this talk has got me feeling antsy. You want a hit, Lucy? Best way to start the day after breakfast!" Jenna perked up after a moment of heavy silence, she clasped her hands together and gave me a huge smile.

"Nah, I'm good. I'm gonna take a nap before hitting the shopping districts, I just have to sit there and people put wads of cash at my feet." I yawned as the exhaustion finally hit my bones. Besides, the type of substances they put in their bodies didn't react too well with me. Put me more on edge than anything, brought up and amplified these deep, twisted voices inside my head.

"Ooh, can I get her hit then?" Don asked as he followed at Jenna's heels like a devoted puppy. I shuffled my heavy feet into the living room, collapsing onto the stiff couch held together by duct tape. Even with the music still playing in the background and the loud noises of the city trickling in through the window, sleep hit me like a brick to the face.


	3. Three

_It was late spring, and the sky was an opulent shade of blue. I stood on the stage as a round of applause followed my name. There I scanned the crowd, my heart nearly dropped._

 _Then I saw her, my mother in the far, far back of the lawn. Standing under an oak tree. She grins and waves, blonde hair resting high on her head like a golden crown._

 _I cut through the crowd, a sea of robed bodies and finely dressed parents. There is laughter, a shower of caps thrown in the air. My mother opens her arms for me, I close my eyes to fall into a warm embrace, but when I open them she is gone._

 _Now I am standing alone again, and the crowd is completely still._

 _A thousand eyes staring right me._

* * *

When I woke up, it was mid afternoon and the sun was slanted right in my face. A guy sitting on the ground across from me, probably one of Jenna's or Don's friends, gave a start and gave a sarcastic 'good morning' while laughing through whatever haze he was high on. I told him thanks then quickly got to my feet and made my way to Jenna's room where a trash bag of my clothes was kept in her closet.

I rifled through my meager belongings and found a clean-ish shirt to change into. I scrubbed my blood stained shirt on the sink for a few minutes under the scalding hot water until the nerve endings in my hands began to scream. I flung it over the rail of her shower to dry and left a few dollars in quarters hidden in her drawer so no one would steal it. While I was there, I took the opportunity to wash my face using some of Jenna's expensive fruity smelling products and ran a brush through my tangled mess of hair.

Grabbing my bag again, I set out for the door and the wider city of Gotham. My stomach was growling again so I stopped to buy an apple from a fruit stand on the way to the touristy shopping part of the city. It took about an hour on foot which I usually did, but I was still spooked from the earlier events so I took a quick bus ride.

Sometimes the cops would chase away the 'undesirables' in certain areas such as this. At first glance I could pass for a regular college student depending on how clean my face was, so I was usually left alone. A few of the veteran cops actually knew me by name and would take the time to talk to me before telling me to get lost. Today there weren't any roaming around yet, so I plopped myself down in between a coffee shop and a boutique and placed an empty cup in between my feet and opened up my battered copy of Huck Finn.

The first few hours passed by uneventfully, each time someone tossed money towards me I'd give a meek smile and say thanks as pathetically as possible. Throw up a peace sign to be charming. Maybe if I coughed hard enough I could attract more attention…

"I knew you'd be here! Gee, begging again? Why don't ya just sell your ass, get way more money." A familiar, annoying voice stole me from my novel. I looked up and curled my lip at the scrawny teenager with eraser shaped hair giving me a gapped tooth grin.

"What do you want, Red?" I huffed.

"Ain't me. Jones is looking for ya. Says it's important, can't wait." The hyperactive kid bounced on the heels of his shoes.

"I'm busy. I'll go see him next time I'm in the Narrows." I said dismissively and made a point of turning the page in my book.

"Nope, not gonna work. I can't go back to the pub without you." Red crossed his arms and fixed me with his green eyed stare. I knew I could easily overpower his scrawny frame, but Jones would just send one of his scarier muscle men after me instead of this harmless wanna be.

"Fine. But this better be important, I've only made fifteen bucks so far." I griped, rattling around the cup in my hands.

"Oh, it is. I must say, nice work. Didn't think ya had it in ya." Red winked and bounced ahead of me. I froze in my tracks as my brain tried to process what he just said.

"Jones sent those thugs after me!?" I said just a little too loud and several bystanders turned their heads to stare.

"Shh! Keep it down, ya hysterical broad! And no, he wouldn't do that. Just c'mon!" Red waved his arms around and was turning, well, red.

We caught the subway for the quickest route to Jones' bar. The entire time we traveled to the Narrows I was on the edge of my seat. Red chattered nonstop in my ear about this or that, just trying to impress me, but I usually tuned him out anyway.

Thick grey clouds covered the sky over the Narrows as we emerged from the subway station. I drew my layers of jackets and heavy coat closer around me as I followed Red through the small and sketchy streets. When I first came to Gotham I settled here but quickly left, the area gave me the creeps for some reason. Maybe it was the shadow of Arkham Asylum that loomed over everything in sight, or maybe it was the blight and decay that got to me. Either way, it was just too depressing for me.

"We're here!" Red bellowed as he threw open the bar door and I ducked inside the poorly lit hole in the wall. The bartender was a square-shouldered, severe looking older woman I had seen a few times before. She was dusting off a glass with no success and turned to give us a heavy stare.

"Jones is in the back." She replied without much formality, jabbing her thumb in the general direction.

"You heard the lady." Red gave me a hard push with both hands. When I didn't move fast enough, he practically shoved me the whole way through the maze like back rooms until we stopped in front of a closed door. I knocked on it after Red darted off, hoping whatever it was that Jones wanted wouldn't take too long.

"Doors open." A gruff voice responded. I turned the heavy knob and fell through the doorway as it swung open.

Jones sat behind his desk with a tall bodyguard standing against the wall in the middle of the room. Both of them wore all black, Jones a too big suite for his already too big frame. On his desk sat a large stack of money neatly tied together by a white rubber band, my mouth watered at the sight of so much cash in one spot. Jones noticed my admiration and gave a large smirk.

"Take a seat, Lucy. We are going to discuss this." He placed a large bear paw sized hand on the stack of cash. I quickly found a chair and scooted it up towards him, all ears. If only Red had mentioned the prospect of so much money, I would have ran here.

"What's up?" I asked, cringing inwardly at how vacant I sounded.

"A little birdie told me you were the one who took care of those guys in the alley off of third street in the wee hours of the morning." He did not waste anytime getting right to the point.

"Oh. Word travels fast." I frowned, taking a mental note not to tell Jenna anything like that again.

"It's okay, I'm glad I found out. You know I have bosses of my own. Someone sent those guys after you, Lucy. Someone you don't wanna mess with in Gotham. Now, I take care of my own, and don't wanna see you get mixed up with these people. I'm gonna take care of ya, see to it that you won't get hurt, throw em off your trail as they say. But I'm gonna need you to do something for me in return, and as a show of good faith," he made a display of pushing the money towards me, "you get this."

My mouth was hanging open by the end of his little speech, not because of what he said, but at the large sum being paraded around in front of me. Hungrily, I snatched the money up and shoved it against my face. Even the bodyguard looked a little put off by my antics, but he didn't understand. Never had I ever come into contact with so much money. I counted the figures and nearly fell out of my seat.

"Two hundred grand!?" I screeched breathlessly, my hands shaking the entire time. "What for?" I looked up at him in a star struck gaze. Jones looked amused, he took a moment to pause for dramatic effect, really work up the show.

"So you can leave this city that hasn't been good on ya and start a new life. You can take my niece and her dopehead boyfriend along with ya too if ya want. But only after you do this small favor for me. It's not real hard, you can be out of Gotham by tomorrow morning." Jones held up one large finger to wag it in my direction. The bodyguard stepped forward and wrestled the cash out of my hands.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" I asked quickly, vaguely aware that he had said someone was after me. All that was floating through my mind were beautiful, fat wads of cash, far away places filled with sunlight, and all the things in store front windows I could never buy. This morning I had been breaking open meters for _quarters._

"I want you to go to this address after dark. It's over in the old Industrial Park. Leave this package in the mailbox." Don slides a strip of paper towards me with a small square shaped object wrapped in newsprint.

"What's in the package?" I felt a deep frown tug at the ends of my lips.

"Nothing that will get you put in prison if you get caught. Trust me." His tone is hard and leaves no room for questions. It all sounds too good to be true, like something out of my wildest dreams. No one would have to get hurt, I wasn't stealing or selling anything deplorable, and I would be walking away golden.

All on my own.

I grab the package and shove it in the inside pocket of my jacket. The address is easy to memorize and a minute later I'm watching the piece of paper burn in the embers of the grate.


	4. Four

I was the only one sitting in the back of the bus. There were two other passengers, an old man slumped down asleep in his chair, and a tall scrawny tweaker looking guy standing up in the aisle. He kept looking back at me from time to time with his eyes bucked back, but he looked so far gone that he probably thought the green highlights in my hair meant that I was magical or something stupid.

The piece of gum in my mouth was starting to harden. I stared straight ahead with my hands balled into fists in my pockets. The first thing I was gonna do with that cash… show up on my mom's doorstep dressed to the nines with a huge middle finger her way.

Suddenly the bus lurched to a stop and the doors squeaked open. I was thrown from my daydreams and got to my feet, quickly storming to the front before the bus driver took off again. He eyed me suspiciously as I hopped off the steps and under the amber halo of the streetlamp.

There was a fog of black exhaust as the bus groaned to a start and roared off down the street. I quickly took stock of my location and tried not to run as I disappeared into the wide open streets. There were thin layers of puddles on the asphalt, my footsteps echoed in my ears they splashed through the muck.

The lights from Gotham reflected deep copper and gold against the rippling water of the bay. I pulled my hood over tighter and scanned the deserted scrap yard. It was empty, and the silence that permeated throughout the air set me on edge. It was unnatural, strange.

Ignoring my gut feeling, I went on ahead and crept around the corner towards the address Jones had given. It was what looked like an abandoned warehouse, with ironed bar windows that were already smashed out and a boarded up door. But there wasn't any mailbox. Nothing bolted to the ground outside, not even a square shaped box on the wall.

I checked the address, the crumbling numbers above the door. Yeah, this was the place. Alarm bells were going off in my head by now, I took the package out and debated just throwing it through one of the windows when a black van pulled around the street and parked around the other side of the building.

As quietly, but quickly as possible, I darted around the opposite side into the small alley way between the sprawling warehouses. Heart pounding in my ears, I fought against the rising tide of fear. The paranoia of being followed had me hunched over and running like a cockroach in the corners of a room. I ducked through a random opening in the fence to my left that led to a separate yard. There were large stacks of crates covered by blue tarps blocking the view from the street, so I hid behind them to catch my breath and listen.

Nothing, no footsteps in the distance. Not yet at least.

I tore open the newsprint wrapped package and for a second, I felt my brain stop working.

A chocolate bar?

I stared at the square shaped piece of chocolate as the creepiest urge to start laughing bubbled up in my chest.

Jones.

That _asshole_.

I smashed the pieces up in my hand and threw them into the dirt. I should have known better, should have seen right through his bullshit, but I had been blinded by my own greed. I'll show Jones...teach him to think he could just screw me over…

First things first, I had to get out of here without getting caught by whoever was hunting me down. As I crept around the dark parts of the wide open lots, I tried to recall any reason at all for being caught up in all this nonsense. I didn't think two disposable goons were thatimportant. The most I had ever gotten involved with Jones and his ilk was when I distributed his product, and that had been that one time cause I had just moved here and was extra desperate, but that was besides the point!

Why would I be important? Who would go through all this trouble just to see me?

I emerged into the main street several blocks from where I had been. Even though the area was still quite deserted, I couldn't help but feeling watched. Like I hadn't made it out of the horror movie yet. If I walked fast enough, I could make it to the bus station just a few more blocks to the south.

Keeping low to the ground and sticking to the darkest corners of the yard, I crept through the streets. The wind began to pick up and howl through the tunneling alley ways, sent a chill down my spine.

 _Lucy._

I paused and took a deep breath as the whispers began to speak among themselves. The cold grip of fear had me frozen where I stood as I saw several masked and hooded men walk by the mouth of the alley.

Here I was in the corner, trapped by enemies all around.

 _Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!_

I grit my teeth and shook my head as laughter began to echo inside my head. My hands were trembling as I slowly and as silently as possible walked foot over foot. Pause.

Nothing. Not even the wind in my ears or the voices in my head.

Even though I still felt like I was being watched.

I darted my head around the corner then ran as fast as I could across the street, splashing the heel of my boot in a deep puddle. The sound of a car roaring to life several streets over exploded to life and sent me sprinting forward.

Tires squealed against the asphalt, but from where I couldn't tell. I just kept running, knowing that if I looked back then I would get caught. As the bus station came within sight, I heard car doors slam shut, again extremely close but seemingly anywhere.

 _You can run but you can't hide forever._

Well, fuck you. You can't find someone who doesn't want to be found anyway.

I nearly fell to my feet and kissed the earth as I made it inside the bus station, pushing open the glass doors and sitting down in the lobby in a daze. I raked my hands through my hair as the adrenaline in my system began to fade.

Now what was I going to do? Jones had not been my friend, instead he had sold me out to the highest bidder for whatever creep he was working for. It made my skin crawl at the very idea.

In fact, it pissed me off. A lot. If he thought that he could just throw me away, that I was another disposable street rat, he was going to have another thing coming to him.

Me.


	5. Five

The short bus ride was the longest one of my life. While it took me pretty close to the Narrows, I was still a good distance away. The entire time I was practically bouncing on the heels of my toes, simmering in my anger and thirst for revenge.

From here, the Narrows was practically a straight shot through several burrows. I went completely on foot after hopping off the buss, running half the time, through the hidden shortcuts and back alley streets I had learned throughout the years. The entire time I had to fight off the overwhelming sense of dread in the pit of my stomach, driving my thoughts mad.

Inhale, exhale. Remember, Jones tried to fuck you over.

Rationalize.

It probably took me close to an hour and a half at a sprint half the time, until I blinked and I was standing outside the bar. I was practically shaking with anger that had consumed me, so I took a moment to catch my breath and cross myself before kicking the door open.

I'm not sure what I expected, like a five foot barely three inches, starved at one hundred pounds white girl with a tiny knife was really gonna fuck shit up. But I went in blazing anyway, shouting at the top of my lungs-

To an empty room?

I froze and looked around, my face scrunched up in confusion. Not even the intense looking bar lady was standing there staring at me. Plus, the lights were flickering in one corner where a bunch of tables and chairs had been turned over. For some sick reason, the jukebox was still playing some loud campy tune from the fifties into this empty scene.

My stomach twisted into knots then fell through the floor when I noticed the long, smear of blood trailing to the back rooms. Heart pounding in my ears, I crept forward with my knuckles gripping the handle of the knife until they ached.

It was pitch black in the hallway. My boots crunched over broken glass scattered on the floor. All of the doors were left hanging wide open and teetering off their hinges. I glanced in each one and tried not to let my eyes linger on the bodies inside.

I stood outside the door to Jones office, the only one left intact, shut like the big guy was inside waiting for me. My palm closed around the doorknob and I resisted every urge to turn around and run. But curiosity got the better of me. The door flew open and smacked against the other side of the wall.

Vomit rose then lurched inside my gut, but there was nothing there to upchuck other than the bile. Jones sat at his desk, missing half of his head. I would have given a large, hearty, genuine laugh at his end, because fuck him, but the other body in the room sent a torrent of emotions through me.

Red was face down on the ground, his chest was rising and falling pitifully as he was minutes from death. A pool of maroon colored blood spanned out from the bullet holes riddling his chest.

Holy shit.

Someone had been pissed or excessive. Probably both.

"Red?" I hovered carefully over his body, feeling extremely helpless as he tried to hold onto breath. His eyes swiveled to face mine as he tried to say something, but could barely get the words out. I wanted to close my eyes, to look away and plug my ears until the bad part was over.

"I'm sorry." I swallowed through the knot in my chest. There wasn't much else to say, I saw him regularly, but never hung out with him, never even knew his last name. Here it comes again, _people like him die all the time._ Arunaway kid from nowhere to begin with, who never really hurt anybody. It was the grotesque, bordering on cartoonish, violence that had me sick to my stomach.

This easily could have been me, then the realization: _it was supposed to be._

"H-he, he was-" Red manages to gurgle out his voice, deep from the back of his throat and through the fluid filling his lungs. I lean in closer, and I can see my own reflection in his eyes as they glaze over.

I stand up so quickly the world begins to spin around me. There is a part of me that does not give me time to properly grieve, takes the traumatic moment and puts it away in a box. And that is that for now.

Apart from the bodies and the knocked out lights, it looked like everything had been left intact. For some odd reason, nothing had been rooted through, like this whole thing had been visually planned out. Another twisted scene for someone to find.

I had to act fast, the police would more than likely be here soon or someone else may arrive and blame me for the carnage. Pulling my sleeves above my hands so I wouldn't leave fingerprints, I started to dig through Jones stuff myself. His desk was full of papers related to the bar, invoices and things like that. I turned on the book shelves lining the walls, tossing each volume on the ground after flipping through the pages.

Just when I was about to give up, I grabbed a large, leather bound book that was way to light. I threw it open and a fat wad of cash fell out from a hollowed out cavity. My heart lept, I snatched at the bundle and counted it quickly. While it wasn't close to the obscene amount of money Jones had promised, it was about half that amount but still just enough to get the hell out of Gotham.

Whoever had done this was after me as well, and whoever they were, I did not want to meet them and find out why.

I snuck out of the bar through a window facing the alley way. It was nearing one in the morning, and the Narrows was coming alive with its own version of entertainment. Junkies, petty thieves, and prostitutes haunted the grimy streets in clusters. Fog was rolling in off the river that isolated the island neighborhood from the rest of Gotham, bringing with it an undercurrent of excitement in the air. I had to get the hell out of here, get the hell of out Gotham itself.

Looping around the block, I went straight to the nearest subway station and waited for the quickest train towards Downtown. I couldn't leave without the few possessions I had hidden away. Besides, how was I going to break the news to Jenna? Hey, your wanna be crime lord uncle, ya know the one that sells you cheap drugs, yeah, he's dead. No, I don't know, he tried to have me killed or kidnapped and when I went to confront him, he was missing half his head. Sooo, whoever his boss is is mad, and who knows who that could be, with all the weird-

Wait, what if Jenna was in on it? No, frankly she wasn't smart or sneaky enough to help plan something like this… More than likely, if someone was after me, they would have gone to her apartment.

Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit!

I sprinted away from the subway station as soon as the doors slid open. My heart pounded in my ears the entire ten minute run to her apartment building, praying I would not come across a similar scene from the bar.


	6. Six

The front door was unlocked and I fall inside as I throw my weight against it.

"Whoa, there's this thing called knocking, you should try it." Don came walking down the hallway from the kitchen with his eyes barely open. He wasn't even phased by the fact that I was breathing heavily and had practically kicked the door open.

"Where is Jenna?" I flew right past him and into Jenna's room. The weird guy from this afternoon was still hanging around and had brought two girls with him. They were giggling loudly from the living room and asking who I was as I began shoving my few possessions into my regular bag.

"She's at work for another hour. Are you leaving?" Don seemed to perk up a little as he trailed after me.

"Yeah. You guys should really lock the door, by the way." I said as I got to my feet and snatched up my crowbar. Okay, new plan. Go to Jenna's work, tell her what happened, run. Yeah, that sounds good. Won't cause a scene at all.

I felt like I was teetering on the edge of sanity as I walked briskly towards the door, my thoughts were racing past one another while I struggled to drown them out with clarity. The entire time Don watched me like I already had lost it. Without much else formality, I opened the door again, locked it for them, and closed it firmly behind me.

A neighbor was standing in their doorway in the hall, smoking a cigarette as the flickering light from their tv reflected off their face. I paused to ask for one and stood there lighting it before I walked down the stairwell. When, directly down my line of vision, several men dressed in cartoon animal masks appeared at the bottom. I made direct eye contact with the first in line as he raised a beetle black oozi.

I only had forty five seconds to react.

The bullets exploded against the concrete walls in front of me as I took the stairs two at a time. Past the landing where Jenna lived, all the way to the top with the men's footsteps thundering up the stairs after me. I dove behind the wall as another hail of gunfire followed at my heels. Cornered and hiding, the paranoia only worsened.

I had a plan, I know what to do...

No, no, no, no, Lucy.

 _You_ shouldn't be the one running from them, you did nothing wrong. _They_ were the ones attacking your friends, making all this mess. This annoying mess. And look-! You know where some of them are at. In one convenient line, in a cramped stairwell. Plus, you are right behind that handy-dandy corner, excellent for getting the jump on someone...for reasons you have been told…

The gunfire had stopped, and then came a storming of footsteps, a crescendo of applause from the audience.

Here was my moment.

I fought off the sense of deja vu as I thwacked the flat end of the crowbar against the first guy's face. The shiny duck mask he wore cracked in half as his head bobbed backwards. Dropping the crow bar, I ripped the gun out of his hands before shoving him down the steps and into another one wearing a bubblegum pink rabbit mask.

An intake of breath, my finger on the trigger of the gun with the barrel pointed forward-

-and then the _strangest_ thing happened.

The window on the right exploded as a woman dressed in an all black get up came swinging through. She kicked one of them in the head, sending him falling over the railing in loud shrieks of terror. I had fallen from the force of her entrance and scrambled to get back up to my feet, the palms of my hands scratching against tiny shards of glass.

No, no, no, no, I was _not_ about to get tangled up with a supe. Actually, given the sheer number of them crawling around the city, it took one of them _long enough_.

With my heart still pounding in my ears and hands shaking, I ran as fast as I could for the emergency exit on the opposite side of the building facing the other side of the street. A loud, shrill, alarm sounded as I kicked the door open and darted loudly down the winding steps.

People stared at me or jumped out of my way on the street as I walked by, at first I was confused, then I realized I was still carrying the oozi in one hand. I cut down an alley way as police sirens wailed around the corner, my boots splashing in the puddles and muck. My hands still shaking, I made sure the safety was on before hiding the gun under my layers of clothing. The weight rest heavy against my waist as I walked calmly, almost normally, down the dark and smelly alley.

I put my hand on the wall next to me to steady myself and fight off the daze, the ringing in my ears. Had I been followed? Or did they, whoever _they_ were, already know where I was going?

Then again, the most important question, _why?_

The forces that had once terrified me were now beginning to anger me. And I had anger issues.

Of course, the man with all the answers was dead. Perhaps I could get some answers from his next of kin, from Jenna who always hung around his bar when she wasn't at work or stoned at home. I guess now I had a second reason to go see her.


	7. Seven

I did not think I was going to get inside from the front entrance. The club Jenna worked at as a server was one of those fruity-tooty, no sign outside, joints you had to know was there to notice it. I'm pretty sure Jones had gotten her the job too, one of those gigs where you had to wear a full face of makeup and sky high heels to butter up the patrons. I however, looked and smelled like I hadn't bathed in days and had a crazy look in my eye from the even crazier night I had been having.

But the bouncer's face lit up when I flashed a large dollar bill in front of his face and the door sprang open before me. For a second I felt like a big shot, I guess money will do that to you when you aren't used to having it.

Inside, I felt like I had stepped inside the decadent fever dream of a club kid. The walls vibrated from the sheer volume of the music, dancers in glass shaped pillars shook their asses to the beat as pulsating neon lights roamed across the intoxicated crowd. Tones of blue and red were thrown into the air. Lines crossing, people in the crowd with their hands in the air and slumped over in the corner. All things were shiny and new. Heaven and hell.

I crept through the apathetic crowd like the spectre of death and rot. They parted before me with looks of disgust at my out of place attire. Of course I was insanely jealous of them. How I wished I could be like them again. But was I really different now? Or had I been like this all along?

Turning my focus back to the task at hand, I made a beeline towards the bar where I could see Jenna mixing a drink. She looked up and saw me first, then her eyes bugged out as she took in the state of my appearance.

"Whoa, Lucy, what are you doing here!? Is everything okay?" She shouted at me, handing the guy slouched over the bar his drink.

"Yeah, well, no! Can we talk somewhere quiet!?" I leaned towards her, shouting right back at the top of my lungs.

"Sure! Amy, I'll be right back!" Jenna turned to the second bartender standing a few feet away, then she motioned for me to follow her. I avoided eye contact with the other staff as I trailed after her, through two glass double doors and into the smaller, quieter, VIP section that was conveniently empty for the night. "What's up?" Jenna asked, plopping down on one of the couches. I remained standing.

"Jenna, something bad happened to your uncle." I took a deep breath.

"What do you mean? My uncle texted me a few minutes ago asking how work's going." Jenna frowned at me as she crossed her legs then pulled out her cellphone to check the messages.

"That's impossible, I went by his place an hour ago and he, well, someone shot his face off. Red was shot too, they're all dead. Whoever ordered their execution, Jones said something about one of his bosses, is after me, too. That's who sent those guys after me last night, and they came to your apartment looking for me not even an hour ago." I tried not to sound so cut and dry about the whole thing, but there was a sense of urgency. Jenna's face turned several shades lighter, and she gave this weird vacant stare before opening and closing her mouth several times.

"B-but, that can't be right." She stammered out then turned to look at me with wide open eyes. Her voice was distant, far away. Afraid.

"Who's he? Do you know who your uncle worked for?" I asked a little too intensely, grabbing Jenna by her shoulders.

"Lucy, you need to go to the cops. Or ask your mother for help. If it's true and you aren't fucking around with me, then we are screwed-" Jenna reacted just as crazed as me, placing her hands on either side of my face like we were saying our last goodbyes.

"Is everything okay in here?" One of the bouncers leaned into the room. When I turned to look at him from behind my long hair and hood he looked surprised. Then he gave me a wide grin of recognition like he knew who I was.

Then it hit me. Jones got Jenna her job here through his 'connections' in Gotham, said her pretty face would be put to waste in his dive bar. She had to rub shoulders with the big boys, in the glitz and glamour at the top of the criminal hierarchy that ran the city. Me coming here was the most foolish thing I could have done.

 _I am in the lion's den._

"Oh yeah, we're fine. My friend here needs to get going." Jenna jumped to her feet, dragging me up with her.

"I can show her out." The bouncer offered.

"No thanks, I know the way." I dismissed him quickly, but he moved to block my path through the door. I looked up with an irritated expression while his had turned to one of stone.

"I'm afraid that's not an option."


End file.
